Church as Mission

In our text this morning Jesus offers us some final words before ascending to the Father. Jesus gives us some instruction, some encouragement, some comfort, a lasting charge in His final words before going to the Father.

Jesus is going to give the church a purpose. That when it comes down to what a church does, this is it. It is the thing that we are called to do regardless of circumstance, geography, situation, or condition of the heart.

What Jesus calls us to is dependent, not on condition, but on relationship.

As we look at the church, we have to decide what it is we want to be doing. We are called to do something, what is that something?

The mission of the church is the call to tell an eternal story to finite people in a way they can see the hope of the goodness of God in the world through Christ.

Jesus is calling you and me onto mission, to first follow and live in the depths of relationship with the Trinity, through God the Son, to God the Father, empowered by God the Spirit.

That reality of mission takes us deeper into relationships with those around us. Mission is not an event, it is an ongoing reality through relationship.

Look at how Jesus calls the church to mission.

Acts 1:7–8 ESV

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

This is the unalterable witness of the church. We are called to do certain things in the world and to be a certain kind of people.

Not based on any other outcome than to be witness of Christ’s work in the world as Gods people by Gods very Spirit.

We follow the resurrected Jesus who has just overturned death, beaten sin, restored relationships, and we experience the power of the Spirit who reminds us of all those things and gives us the capacity for us to live that out. we are going to look at 4 things that the church needs in mission

Mission begins with Christ

Christs cross and resurrection are fundamental for mission. It locates Christ and it locates us in Christ. This is how we can progress forward, how we can tell the story of Christ in any context. (Hauerwas, Stanley. 2013. Approaching the End: Eschatological Reflections on Church, Politics, and Life. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 64)

To begin with Christ means that we trust that Christ Himself doesn’t move. He is the only fixed position. And from Him we can be a church is that is on the move. No matter where we go, we know where Christ is. We know what He has done. And we can help make sense of a situation because of our position in Christ.

We can be a church on the move, we can be a church who has a perspective in Christ and is empowered by the Spirit. Being on Christs mission does not need to wait for the right circumstances or the right timing or the right mood. It relies on Christ. We tell His story in our time. We tell His story as it relates to us.

We organize all of who we are through the position of Christ. We locate Him, by anticipating the reality of His work in our lives. And we can talk about Him, sharing that hope with others.

And that as we understand who Jesus is, we show others what that life is like. We are witnesses to God’s goodness in the world. Christ in this passage calls the church to go, but to go with a message in hand. To go already having recieved something. Christ calls us to go with our hands already full. With a story already known. He tells us that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us.

God Himself empowers us by His Spirit, and gives us the ability to serve HIm. That means if you are the church this morning, if you belong to Christ, if you have trusted Him then you have been given power to serve Him. All that is true because of Christ is true in your life.

Jesus promises the Spirit will show up. this means we are receiving what is already given. We don’t have to grasp or grapple. It is offered to us. Life in Christ is complete gift, not extracted or taken.

We will see that when mission begins with Christ we are called to respond to who He is in our lives. We don’t take our eyes off what it is we are witnesses to, we just invite others to see the same thing. This is called being a witness.

Mission begins with Active Participants

Because we live with hands full, receiving the gift of God in Christ, we are in the position to continue offering that same gift to others. We are not just passive consumers in the church we are active participants. This is why Jesus Himself uses the word “witness.”

We understand witness based on where Christ is. A witness is someone who has experienced something and can tell someone else what happened. A witness is a reliable interpreter of the events. It is not only a faithful retelling of seeing something happen, it is being a part of that event enough that the witness is involved.

On Thursday night I was going home and there was an accident at an intersection on 152. I had just missed it but it had already happened, early enough that there werent any rescue vehicles there yet. The cars were in bad shape but it didn’t look like anyone was hurt but there was a guy standing out in the middle of the street kind of directing traffic.

I rolled down my window and asked, “is everyone ok?” And he said, “yep, I just checked on everyone and no one is hurt.” He was a witness. He wasn’t just telling me what happened, he was telling me that he knew firsthand what the situation was and what it called for.

The man had a handle on the situation and he knew how to answer my questions. This is witness. Witness is fulfilled in understanding where Christ is in relation to where you are.

This is the thing about witness. You are an active participant. You becomes a reliable communicator of the story. You are involved and your involvement invites others to be part.

Look at how Jesus tells us we will be witnesses. The Spurit of God empowers us. He works in and through us. He imparts His reality in our lives. What is true in Christ is true in us.

We are comforted by Christ so we can comfort others.

Mission begins wherever you are

It’s important to recognize where our witness comes from because the source of the Mission is locating Christ. But the scope of the mission is much broader. Jesus tells us that the church will be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The disciples Jesus was speaking to were in Jerusalem. He told them, locate Christ and by the power of the Spirit start where you are. Wherever you are is a good place to begin.

It is the same for us. Start where you are.

Witness is "something over there that affects how we understand something here." Wherever it is you are is the very place that Christ is calling for you to make more real by His presence and His reality.

In fact witness has to begin wherever you are because it is stating something true about God in your experience. This is the act of choosing a path. We talk about what is true there, in regard to Christ as being true here in regard to your life. ( House, Paul. 2015. Bonhoeffer’s Seminary Vision: A Case for Costly Discipleship and Life Together. Crossway. loc 1332).

A witness speaks the truth about the world and their experience in a way that understands the world as belonging to the Triune God, the God of Israel, the same God who raised Christ from the dead.

Witness is the ability to speak and act so that the speakers “lives must correspond with what they say.” (Approaching the End: Eschatological Reflections on Church, Politics, and Life by Stanley Hauerwas. 42).

It starts wherever you are because witness is never a word from nowhere but it is a witness from somewhere.

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Mission begins wherever you go

Jesus widens the location. Judea was the region where Jerusalem was. Start where you are but don’t stop there. Then Samaria widens the scope. And just in case you thought Samaria was far enough, to the ends of the earth.

The Judea is the place in our community that we use to show love and the compassion of Christ in our city and region. There is a witness that expresses itself in love through the work of the resurrection of Christ. The church carries the witness forward in the way that we speak but also the way that we act. We represent Christ to our neighbors and our city in the way that we act. This is why we care for the special needs community and for our city in doing the egg hunts the way we do them

We aren’t off the hook. We are called to be a witness for Christ, representing here over there. Bringing Christ into the places where He is otherwise absent. During this series we are going to hear from two people who serve with a ministry called Intervarsity. They serve college students all over New England. Next week we will hear from Schuyler Kitchin who serves in Boston caring for students at Berkeley school of music and the Boston Philharmonic and then after Easter we will hear from Lauren who serves all over New England but is at Wheaton college right now. These are places where these two individuals are providing witness of what Christ is like to college students

And then the ends of the world. The reason we take missions seriously is because we take the words of Christ seriously. Be my witnesses, by my Spirit. All over the world. We hear from our friends and missionaries all over the world to see that God is alive and active. In May we will be hosting an Event called Converge where we will hear from missionaries and Christian leaders for what it means for us to go and for us to be witnesses.

No matter where you are you are called to be a witness. For some of us we will be called to go to be a witness elsewhere. We want to help prepare and build up and care for people who feel called to be a witness everywhere.

This is the moment of witness. Where we are committed to the other in the way that reveals the commitment Christ made to that same other. And that we accept the responsibility for it and represent the grace of God within the situation and mission. (The Moment of Christian Witness (Communio Books) by Hans Urs Von Balthasar. 89).

This is why the Scripture states,

Romans 10:15 ESV

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

So the question is not when does mission begin? It already has. The issue is where is mission for you? Who in your life is God calling you to extend your hand and point to Him?

Who in your life is cut off from relationship with God? Who in your life lives in isolation or is burdened or anxious? Who in your life is just treading water? Witness is offering them the life giving water of Christ, it is the place of pointing to Christ with one hand and extending an arm with the other.

Where is one place or one person this week that you are offering a place to look in Christ and an hand to help the other? We are committed to Christ because we can’t shake the reality that He is more than committed to us. We are a church on mission to care for people in such a way that they see Christs commitment to them as well and can’t help but respond.